Twitter To Launch Mobile App Advertising Product

According to story from Bloomberg, citing people close to the project, Twitter is about to launch a new mobile advertising product aimed directly at mobile app developers. The format is being called an App-Install Ad.

Mobile App developers are increasingly struggling to gain exposure for their products as the mobile app stores continue to grow exponentially. The new ad format is said to reduce the customer acquisition costs by 60-80% based on current trials.

When a user sees the add in their mobile Twitter application, a click interaction will drive the user to the App store prevalent on the device, where the purchase process will take place. I question the usability though, as taking a user away from their Twitter App to complete a purchase process doesn’t seem to be an effective solution. It will be interesting to see how it affects the engagement metrics of Twitter.

App stores in general – especially Apple’s iOS App Store and Google Play, have grown in to a virtual cesspool of clones and knock-off apps. Becoming notices is vastly more difficult than developing a new app these days. Any opportunity to increase exposure and generate downloads will surely have a modicum of success, but at what cost to power users of the social media service?